Resilient Eagles reach goal

Starting in the preseason, Gilford girls tennis first-year coach Peter Fagan could not say enough about his three seniors and his Golden Eagle squad.

Following a grueling battle against perennial powerhouse Derryfield for the 2007 Class M-S bragging rights, every one could see why. The Golden Eagles — following the poise and leadership of seniors Maegan Beinoras, Gabby Martin, and Nikki Kolb — hung tough during a rough start and willed their way to a 5-4 triumph over Derryfield in a three-plus hour tussle for the M-S title.

With the victory, the Golden Eagles achieved their goal they set during the preseason — finished off a perfect 16-0 season with the program's first state championship since 2003.

"If we were going to win it, I'm glad it was this way — a close, tight match," Gilford senior Maegan Beinoras said.

"This is so amazing," added Beinoras. "We've beem working hard for it. We've never been to the final, just the semifinals, so this was a good year to do it."

While it took a complete team effort to accomplish their goal — the seniors set the tone.

Both Beinoras and Martin fell into 6-1 holes on courts one and two respectively, but neither went down easily. Both won the next four games to close within 6-5. Martin eventually dropped an 8-5 decision to Alice Townsend. In an exciting match that featured a number of long volleys, Beinoras and Lydia MacKenzie went to a tiebreaker with Derryfield's star pulling out a 9-8 (7-2).

Beinoras and Martin fell short, but the message was clear — the Golden Eagles would not go down without a fight.

"This is something we really wanted to do our senior year," said Gilford senior Nikki Kolb. "We really wanted to get this far. We've made the semifinals, but we've never made it this far. We knew we could because we had a nice strong team behind us."

The two teams would split the six singles matches, with Derryfield getting wins on one and two as well as from No. 5 Emily Mastrogiacomo, 8-2 over Andrea Proulx. Gilford got wins from No. 3 Hannah Rush (8-4 over Jessica Ginsberg) and No. 5 Anna Nicolai (8-6 over Nguyen Doan).

Senior Kolb delivered the pivotal win. With her team down 3-2, Kolb outlasted Camille Smith 9-7 in match that went back-and-forth the entire way.

"There were no walkovers here," Fagan said.

"It had nothing to do with a team wanting it more or a team being more skilled than the other. You couldn't get a more even match," continued Fagan. "We started off sluggish and they were pretty hyped up but we were resilient."

And that's what carried the Golden Eagles to the title.

Heading into doubles, it was clear Gilford had the momentum and Derryfield was deflated.

With the new life, Beinoras and Martin took care of business in posting an 8-3 victory over MacKenzie and Smith at No. 1 doubles. The Cougars got even when Townsend and Ginsberg took an 8-4 decision over Rush and Nicolai.

That left it to No. 3 doubles, and Kolb and Proulx gave the Golden Eagles the crown with an 8-5 triumph over Sadie Fowler and Mastrogiacomo.

"They came to play," Fagan said. "They deserved everything."

Amid the celebration, Fagan quickly dished out the credit to the players as well as longtime Gilford coach Curt Chesley, who retired after 25 years at the GHS helm.

"Curt Chesley deserves a lot of credit ... it's his team," Fagan said. "I stepped into a situation where they didn't need a lot of coaching.